It'd make a wonderful change to have the leader of a pluralist democracy who acted on that, who told people just how tough things are going to be, just what's going to have to be done - and, maybe, ran all the risks on the side of honesty, rather than spinning stories and trying to win the headlines every day.

So, what I say to people is that politics has got to be about principle and values above all. Of course, there are times when you have to make accommodations.

You don't have to wait until people say they accept everything you say until you are actually prepared to sit down and discuss matters with them.

There is a sort of exotic preposterousness about a lot of elections, the way arguments are made even cruder.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

Hong Kong represents the kind of Asia with which both West and East are comfortable... It offers, in that sense, a vision for the future of Asia.